Douglas Carswell's Blog

It's the bankruptcy of ideas that should worry us

Treasury officials and advisers are “out of their depth” when it comes to handling the Euro crisis, suggests Peter Oborne.  Apparently, despite all the warning signs for months, none of the top officials have seriously thought through what we might do in the event of one or more member states within the Eurozone defaulting.  

It is starting to look as if the “experts” are every bit as wise when it comes to the Eurozone bailouts as they were a generation ago over the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.  Already their blundering negotiation “skills” have landed the UK with a gargantuan, and unnecessary, £ Billion bailout bill.  One which, incidentally, does nothing to reduce the debts of the indebted countries.  

Has anyone even floated the idea with our European allies that they might want to try an alternative to piling up and parcelling out yet more debt? 

Maths, if not the policy wonks, suggest that the only realistic thing to do is to allow a number of Eurozone members to default on their debts and decouple from the Euro.  "Default and decouple", there's even a neat made-for-TV phrase for it.  The alternative would be to throw a generation’s prosperity and wealth away trying to hold back the inevitable.   

Here is a short reading list for Whitehall officials, and indeed others, who still don’t get it:

1. Allister Heath: City AM

2. Peter Oborne: Daily Telegraph

Let's hope there are a few copies to hand in Prague ....   

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